We’re all different, not everybody needs the latest and greatest product!

I’ve been a tech and gadget enthusiast for many years and I’ve always been a fan of new tech, I mean it sounds exciting, right? 

You get new features, more power and many other exciting new things!

At the same time, I’ve also worked with tech for a long time. I started my tech career in an electronics store and now I am an IT engineer.

The reason I am mentioning this is that after working with people for all this time I noticed something, I noticed that people are happy with basic tech, it doesn’t need to be from the best brand or top of the range like we’re all lead to believe!

In this article, I will be mainly talking about smartphones, but I guess this can apply to all sorts of tech products and products in general.

The Problem

Let’s start this article by talking about the problem. I’m calling this section the problem, but is what I’m about to say really a problem? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Tech companies are constantly evolving, they want to make their products better, give them more features and make them more powerful and the list goes on.

As good as that sounds, this may not resonate with everyone. As people, we all have different priorities in life, we all have different interests, different believes and we all live the way we want to live. 

To a tech enthusiast getting the latest and most powerful smartphone from their favourite brand may be important, but to Peter (which is just a name that came to my head), that may not be important.

In fact, all Peter wants from a smartphone is to be able to stay in touch with people and take occasional photos that are good enough to share with friends and family.

There are many people in the same boat, it’s one of the reasons big brands manufacture budget smartphones, they know and see that there is a big market for them.

I’m looking at you tech communities!

With what I’m about to say, I’m not speaking about everyone, but there are members of these communities who will make fun of people for choosing the older version of a phone or for choosing a cheaper version of a phone or even a phone from a less known brand.

You see comments such as “Phone A is better than phone B”, but phone A is around £300 more than phone B, or that “they should have gone for the newest top-of-the-range model”.

It’s something I used to see all the time working in an electronics store and I still see it now!

What these people forget is that not everybody needs the latest and greatest device and that extra £300 may be more beneficial to that person elsewhere or on something that is important to them.

Slow, cheap and cheerful is alright for some people!

Not so long ago, I was helping a relative transfer data from an extremely old smartphone, to a replacement which happened to be a Nokia C32. Looking online, the smartphone is selling between £99 and £110 at the time of writing this article.

Spec-wise, there’s nothing too special. It’s advertised with 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, a 3-day battery life and a 50MP camera. 

Those sorts of specs are enough to put many people off, however, my relative was more than happy with the phone and is still happy to this day. The reason for that is that he doesn’t mind the slowness of the device as long as he can do what he needs to do.

He’s not alone in this!

There are many people like him who just want a basic phone to do basic things.

Throughout my time working in tech I’ve met loads of people who prefer entry-level tech and there is absolutely no issue with that as long as they are happy.

There are a few things to bear in mind…

I’ve already mentioned that there are people out there who don’t mind having cheap phones that are slower than the more expensive models. But that may not work for everyone.

The people who don’t mind these phones are often people who don’t tend to use their phones that much, so the slowness may not be problematic for them.

But for some people (me included), that may sound like a nightmare! I would hate for my phone to be slow! But then again, I tend to be quite a heavy user.

If you like taking photos, you may want a phone with a better camera as the cheaper phones tend to only have basic cameras, although I think it’s fair to say that mobile phone cameras have gone a pretty long way over the last couple of years!

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that you can’t expect to get everything if you’re not buying a more premium model.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, as people we all have different use cases for having a phone, some may want it as a tool to call people and to take occasional photos, some people use it for gaming, some people use it for taking professional photos and recording videos, the list is endless!

But I think it’s fair to say that we are all different and that we all have different reasons for using a phone or technology for that matter.

The reason I decided to write this article is because I wanted to voice my opinion on it as I see too many people online making fun of these budget phones, when in fact they may be perfect for some people.

You tend to see this happen everywhere, you see it online, you see it in person and I guess in many cases people just want to save others from making mistakes of buying cheap tech, that they may regret.

People also seem to have the opinion that if you buy cheap, you buy twice. I mean, technically there are many cases where this is true, and I’m not just talking about tech. But it’s not always the case with every cheap item.

I’ve seen many basic smartphones outlast more expensive models!

So what do people need to understand?

To summarise this article, I seriously think that people need to understand that we are all different, that we have different needs and requirements and that not everybody needs the most powerful and feature-packed tech. 

Put it this way, I know many people who are tech enthusiasts but they have a basic smartphone which they are happy with.

It’s not just tech!

Some people may only need a basic car, some may prefer to wear basic clothing, some may prefer to live in a basic apartment, and once again, the list goes on!

I think that it’s only natural that as humans we want the best for ourselves which is why we are seeing people make fun of cheaper items and maybe even look down on them, but if a person is happy with the cheaper item, I respect that!

Have you ever purchased a cheap phone or tech item that you are happy with? Let us know in the comments!